Almost every Final Fantasy fan loves its stoic male characters. They were series staples for a long time, like the so-called FF "princesses" and the main male hero characters.

Take FFIV's stern, secretive Kain Highwind. He's very popular, especially among male fans. If you love FFVIII, then most likely you love Squall Leonhart too, who, for the first half of the game, was a model of stoicism. And who can forget Final Fantasy X's Auron? Everyone loves Auron! Grizzled, gruff-voiced, and with perpetually present sunglasses, he enjoys equal popularity among male and female fans. And I couldn't possibly leave the stoic boys of FFVII off the list: Sephiroth, Cloud, and Vincent all enjoy large fan bases.

But FFX-2's resident stoic guy, Nooj, is the exception to the rule. Generally, fans tend to overlook him, poorly characterize him, or write him off as the straight man in silly comedic adventures with other characters.

Just where does Nooj fail to find fans' favor? Based on the success of other stoic characters, I can offer a few explanations:

• His character isn't romantic/sympathetic. Sometimes, a character is made by their back story or current dilemma. Kain loses to Cecil in the Cecil/Rosa/Kain love triangle, which makes him both romantic and sympathetic. Cloud pined for Tifa's affections as a child, but never got them then; he's also the victim of Sephiroth's control and an identity crisis as an adult. In his case, he gets a triple dose of sympathy. And of course there's his love triangle with Tifa and Aeris. The crux of Nooj's issues is something synthetic and cold: not his temporary possession by Shuyin, or his past romance with Paine, but his struggle to accept his altered body. As a man with two machina limbs, he wonders if he is really human. Like many people who become para- or quadriplegics, he grapples with thoughts of suicide. It's a realistic story, but not a romantic one — and the majority of FFX-2's fan base is teenaged girls, who are big on romance. (This also explains why Leblanc gets quite a bit of undue sympathy in the fandom, but that's another story.)

To top it off, Nooj is a cold character. In Chapter 1 in Kilika, he comes off as arrogant and condescending, an air he never really loses as the game progresses. Yet inside he's negative and self-depreciating — an alternative that's hardly more appealing, unless one is the thoughtful type who appreciates the depth and scope of such a character. The gentle, affectionate person Nooj is around Paine is seen in too few scenes. Perhaps if that side of him were shown more frequently, he would've garnered more fans (again, the romance factor). Nooj resolves his issues by the game's end, but this still didn't endear him to fans.

• He's a serious character in a not-so-serious game. While one could make the same argument about Paine, Nooj beats even her out. Every main character but him gets a noticeable lighthearted moment. What light moments Nooj gets are subtle, and fans either don't perceive or don't care about subtleties. Nooj might have been more appreciated in a darker, more serious FF game.

• He's not a pretty boy. Not only are Nooj's features very masculine and mature, but again, he's half-machina, and X-2's fan base isn't into that kind of character. He is seen as being freakish, rather than being a hero and victim. Contrast this with his friends Baralai and Gippal, who have tinier, more boyish features and are much more popular with fans.

Nooj is the main male character in FFX-2, its main hero if you will. The storyline progressed through his actions. He seemed to be created to be one of the game's deeper characters, geared more towards older fans. Yet few of those have played FFX-2 and enjoyed it enough to be involved in its fandom — and perhaps that's the best explanation for all the Nooj neglect.